The Western Area Career and Technology Center celebrated its 50th anniversary with a grand birthday bash on June 3rd to mark half a century of hands-on learning.
The day included the usual gluten-free baked goods courtesy of the culinary department, games, friendships and a meal walking down memory lane.
“Do they still build houses?” Stephen Meald, a 1989 graduate, asked former principal Mary DeProspero Adams at a celebration. “When I was here, the yearly project was to build a house, a modular house. Our class did all the wiring and all the electricity.”
This was a collaborative project in which other vocational classes contributed their skills, but it is no longer completed annually.
“Basically, you’re building a house. It’s a hands-on experience. In my opinion, it’s been a very valuable experience,” said Meerdo, who served on the WACTC board for many years. “Most of the students who come here are hands-on students. If it weren’t for that, these kids would have been lost. I didn’t like school. That wasn’t what I was looking for.What value trading brings is…more important than a college degree at this point.It opens the door.Trading is the position you enter and stay in.You almost write your own ticket
Students across Washington County have created their own ticket for 50 years. Nine school districts bus her 10th through 12th graders to a sprawling campus in the western region, where the student chooses one of 15 trade studies and immerses himself completely.
Studies include auto mechanics and cosmetology, culinary arts and masonry. Sports Medicine will be offered for the first time in the 2022-2023 academic year.
“I think they always thought of us as a dumping ground for misbehaving kids, and that’s been the case for the last 20 years,” said David McCarthy, who will step down as executive director on August 31. It’s gone,” he said. With so many job opportunities, I have no college debt. Our children work before they graduate from high school. Companies pick them up. ”
Meerdo said the companies he has worked for are hiring students. Young people with post-secondary aspirations go to college with college credit at WACTC, McCarthy said.
Giuseppe Giuliani didn’t know he liked welding so much, father Jason Giuliani said at a 50th anniversary party.
“It’s kind of focused on him a little bit. It’s given him a career path he didn’t know he wanted to do. He loves it,” said Jason Giuliani. I love it.”
After graduating from high school and WACTC, Giuseppe Giuliani plans to pursue welding in the military or technical college.
Last year, DeProspero Adams said WACTC graduated from its largest class in five to six years, with enrollments fluctuating but stable.
The thing DeProspero Adams will miss most when she retires (she has been a principal for 41 years) is her students.
DeProspero Adams, who retired at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, said, “I swear we have the best students in Washington County. I never know if I will.”
At the 50th anniversary ceremony, current and former students, faculty and staff buried a time capsule and opened it half a century later. The Western Area Career and Technology Center will be led by new Principal James Purtel in his 51st year.
Purtell said he is looking forward to working with the new director (who was hired in early July) and administrative staff to expand the technical skills of the students and assist them on their path to successful and fulfilling careers. .
Purtel, who holds a master’s degree in education from the University of California and was most recently a crafts teacher, said: at Apollo Ridge School District. “I see it as a team effort on where the school is headed and where it’s headed in the next half century.”
Partel said there are currently no plans to expand the curriculum, sports medicine is new, and each career center develops a curriculum tailored to the needs of the community, but it will be available to students in the Western Area. I am thrilled with the opportunity.
“I believe that a career in technology is very important and can move forward into the next 50 years and beyond,” said Purtell. “Especially with regard to the cost of higher education. It’s not that our students won’t go on to two or four year high schools. We offer services by choice, what we currently have.There are opportunities out there that don’t necessarily require a college degree.Students who come out of the apprenticeship are not in debt.The stigma is.. It’s definitely going away and if possible I’d love to help get rid of it for good. I’m thrilled to be here.
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